Keaton likes what he sees for Stillman football

Stillman coach Teddy Keaton and the Tigers finished last year with a 6-5 record. Keaton has tweaked the coaching staff and expects the Tigers to be competitive this season.

File Photo

By Tommy DeasExecutive Sports Editor

Published: Saturday, July 13, 2013 at 3:30 a.m.

Last Modified: Saturday, July 13, 2013 at 12:04 a.m.

TUSCALOOSA | Teddy Keaton is always looking for an edge. Stillman College’s head football coach has spent the offseason tweaking his football staff to bring in some fresh ideas and a couple of familiar faces.

Stillman coach Teddy Keaton and the Tigers finished last year with a 6-5 record. Keaton has tweaked the coaching staff and expects the Tigers to be competitive this season.

File Photo

Keaton has promoted Steve Mares, quarterbacks coach for the Tigers, to offensive coordinator, allowing the head coach to give up play-calling responsibilities so he can better oversee the entire team operation. Mares played under current University of Alabama head coach Nick Saban in the early 2000s while Saban was at LSU.

“He’s determined to be great,” Keaton said of Mares. “I felt like it was time to turn it over to someone else. I know someone gave me an opportunity when I was a young coach and this was a chance for me to do the same thing.

“He understands what I want. He knows what we want to do offensively.”

On the defensive side, Keaton brought Jo Nixon — a former assistant at Stillman — back to coach linebackers. Nixon coached most recently at Arkansas Tech. And Keaton has added Jerome Jennings, former head coach at Central High, to coach the defensive secondary.

“We’re a young staff,” Keaton said. “We’re all fussers and yellers and you’ve got to have the one guy who has that leadership and the maturity thing and wisdom. He can go pat them on the back and say keep working hard, keep fighting. I was looking for somebody like that to be around as part of the staff.”

The Tigers went 6-5 last season. Keaton is proud to see heavy participation in the offseason conditioning program. Players have worked in groups in football drills, which coaches cannot supervise in the summer due to NCAA rules.

“I’ve got a lot of positive feedback,” Keaton said. “They’ve worked hard according to the people who tell me. They’ve done really well in the weight room and their 7-on-7s went well from what I’ve heard. This is a new team, a new season and a new attitude. I feel like a lot of the kids have devoted themselves and I’m really proud of them.”

“Amazingly, we had 50-something players here for the summer. They’ve all gone home for their break now.”

Stillman opens with Concordia of Selma at home on Sept. 7, then has three straight road games: at Clark Atlanta, at St. Augustine’s in North Carolina and at Kentucky State.

“That road stretch kind of concerns me a little bit,” Keaton said, “but I kind of start at the top of it and Concordia is our first game. We want to focus on that and focus on us and let’s see what we do well.”

The meat of Stillman’s schedule comes after the road swing – home games against Lane, Benedict, Central State and Miles, with an Oct. 19 road trip to Tuskegee.

The highlight for Stillman supporters comes Nov. 28 on Thanksgiving in the Turkey Day Classic in Montgomery against Alabama State. The Hornets play at the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision, with more scholarships and resources than Division II Stillman, but Keaton invites the challenge.

“That’s a big game for our fans, for our team,” Keaton said. “For everybody involved that’s got to be the biggest game for our program in a long time, but we’re going to approach it the same way we do any other game. We want to do well in it.”

Reach Tommy Deas at tommy@tidesports.com or at 205-722-0224.

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